Archives for 2017

The snow is one foot deep. It graces the branches of trees. It is beautiful and cold.

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Some people sleep in tents, round hummocks topped with snow, some under one wool blanket. They don’t feel safe in the emergency shelters.

Over the years, I’ve known other houseless people who don’t feel safe in shelters. Braving cold, darkness, rain, and snow is often preferable to sleeping cheek by jowl with other humans who may do them violence.

And yet, they are houseless, on the street in the first place because our culture as a whole has done violence toward them. We have not made room for care, preferring money over inclusion, and punishment over community.